Washington State University Athletics

 

GREENY UP CLOSE

PERSONAL

Name: Jen Greeny

Hometown: Davenport, Wash.

High School: Davenport High School

Education: Washington State University (1999)

BA, Elementary Education

PLAYING CAREER

1995-1998: Washington State (middle blocker)

COACHING CAREER

2000-04: Washington State (assistant coach)

2007-10: Lewis-Clark State (head coach)                Record: 112-24

2011-Current: Washington State (head coach)                         WSU Record: 209-167 (.556)                         Career Record: 321-191 (.627)

COACHING HONORS

4x: Frontier Conference Coach of the Year (2007-10)

4x: AVCA NW Region Coach of the Year (2007-10)

2016: Pac-12 Coach of the Year 2021: Co-Pac-12 Coach of the Year

Since taking over the reins of her alma mater as Washington State head volleyball coach in March of 2011, Jen Greeny and her staff have brought Washington State back into national prominence within the landscape of Division I volleyball with seven-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and 10 AVCA All-American selections. Greeny and staff have had the Cougars in the final AVCA Top-25 poll five times overall, including each of the past three seasons. Cougar volleyball has also seen numerous players over the past decade who have gone on to compete both internationally and professionally.

Having been a part of the two best postseason runs in program history as both a player (1996 NCAA regional appearance) and as an assistant coach (2002 NCAA regional appearance), coach Greeny inherited a team that went 0-18 in conference play in 2010, the year before her return to the Palouse. She and her staff have since transformed the program into a perennial force in the Pac-12, reaching the NCAA regional as a head coach for the first time in 2018. The Cougars matched the volleyball program record for most conference wins (14) in a single season in 2022 after a third-place finish in the final Pac-12 standings of the season.  The third-place finish for the Cougs was the best conference finish during Greeny’s 12-year tenure and the best since the 2002 WSU team that reached the NCAA Elite Eight.

Coach Greeny and her staff recently led the charge on a fundraising effort that successfully reached its goal for a major renovation to their volleyball-only facility, Bohler Gym. Renovations, which are scheduled to be unveiled at the start of the 2023 season, include the installation of a Taraflex vinyl flooring surface as well as upgraded lower bleachers, a mainstay for Cougar volleyball season ticket holders and the ZZU CRU student section. Greeny's Cougars set the modern home attendance record (Bohler Gym’s capacity was lowered in 2011) with a crowd of 3,005 on hand to watch WSU sweep Apple Cup rival, Washington, on Nov. 25, 2022.

Greeny, now a two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year award winner (2016 & 2021), has coached eight of the Cougars’ 11 AVCA All-Americans while her teams have produced 34 total postseason all-conference honors including 15 first team All-Pac-12 selections. A former CoSIDA Academic All-American during her time as a Wazzu student-athlete, Greeny’s teams have also produced 45 Pac-12 all-academic certificates and a pair of Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year award recipients-- Casey Schoenlein in 2017 and Magda Jehlarova in 2022.

Prior to her collegiate volleyball career, Jen Greeny (Stinson), was a stellar multi-sport athlete in the Spokane area at Davenport (Wash.) High School. In January of 2023, it was announced that Greeny (Stinson) will be formally inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Hall of Fame as a member of the HOF Class of 2022. At Davenport, Stinson collected multiple all-state accolades in each of her three sports – volleyball, basketball and track & field – and is still the state’s career record holder for girls’ basketball points scored.

At WSU she became the seventh player in WSU history to reach 1,000 career kills and was a three-time All-Pacific-10 Conference selection. Greeny (Stinson) still ranks eighth in career block assists (360), fourth in total blocks (419), and eighth in solo blocks (59). Coach Greeny received invites to train with the U.S. National Team during her playing days and has since held roles as a talent evaluator and assistant coach with USA Volleyball. She was an assistant coach on the 2016 USA Volleyball Collegiate National Team and was later invited to join the USA volleyball staff for the 2022 Women’s National Team Open Program.

Greeny began her collegiate coaching career with a five-year stint just down the road from Pullman as head volleyball coach at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. Prior to turning around the LCSC program, which she led to a 112-24 (.824) record during her tenure, Greeny had spent four and one-half years on WSU Head Coach Cindy Fredrick’s coaching staff. Her time as an assistant coach at WSU was highlighted by the Cougars’ second all-time appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 2002.

Greeny and her husband, Burdette, a former standout pitcher at WSU and an assistant volleyball coach at WSU, have two daughters, Lauren and Leah.  Their oldest daughter, Lauren, is also now a Division I student-athlete and is in her first full year of collegiate golf at Montana State in 2022-23. Coach Greeny is also a member of the Pullman Regional Hospital Foundation. Together, Jen and Burdette were honored with a City of Pullman Chamber of Commerce Walk of Fame plaque in 2015; the 25th plaque in the Famous Sports Figures category which honors those who have a positive impact beyond Pullman High School or Washington State University.